Suspect in DC shootings trained at Great Lakes Naval Base

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The suspected gunman in the mass shooting at a D.C. naval yard was identified as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis.

Alexis was a naval reservist for about 4 years and more recently he was a Navy subcontractor in Texas

Alexis trained in the Chicago area for 2 months in 2007 at the Great Lakes Naval Station.

From there, the New York native eventually made his way to Texas where he served the bulk of his full time reservist duties working on electrical engineering systems. He had no oversees or combat experience. While Alexis may have received two common medals on the job, he also had been arrested twice:

Once in Seattle in 2004 for shooting out the tires of some construction workers cars. Then again in 2010 for discharging his weapon in public. He told police back then, he was cleaning his weapon when it accidentally went off.

Alexis left the naval reserves in 2011. Why he was discharged has not been made public. But more recently, the Petty Officer 3rd Class had been a subcontractor for the Navy enrolled with an online university in Florida since 2012 pursuing a bachelor’s of science in aeronautics.

The FBI is now in charge of learning more about the man who reportedly stormed the DC naval yard this morning and opened fire on a cafeteria filled with people, many of them civilians.